But dormant Martians -- ugly, vile and protective of their homeland -- awake from the center of the planet and try to kill you and other invading humans.

Your mission is to slay as many Martians as possible, hunting them through tunnels, bunkers and underground buildings.

There's a lot to like about "Armageddon" -- awesome upgradeable weapons, serviceable dialogue, narrative cinema and smooth game play.

But it's half-stupid, like a good B-movie. And it gets off to a lame start, although it improves level by level.

The guns are righteous. You fire a little black hole weapon at a Martian, and a black hole briefly appears, imploding the Martian and his surroundings.

There's a fantastic magnet gun. You fire one magnet at a creature's head and a second magnet at a ceiling, and the creature is pulled swiftly to the ceiling with enough force to kill it.

Another awesome gun disintegrates foes in front of your eyes. Plasma guns slice and dice. There also are rocket launchers and grenade launchers.

And you have an anti-weapon that lets you repair damaged environments. You just point it at a derelict building, hold a button and the building restores itself. That's a nifty way to fix bridges and other pathways you need to cross.

A puzzling thing: This is a third-person shooter, when many shooting fans prefer first-person viewpoint. Why not give us both options?

"Armageddon's" online multiplayer is cooperative only. Instead of gaming against other real players, you join up in groups to blast away at Martians on battlefields. Kill enough Martians, and you proceed to the next level.

I like the cooperative mode better than the solo campaign. The Martians are more difficult to beat. All the guns are at your disposal. If you enter that arena alone, you can play online levels by yourself and be entertained for a while.

Here's the thing: As a hardcore gamer, I find the solo campaign far too easy on the "casual" and "normal" settings. It's even quite easy for me on the "hard" setting. Hardcore gamers immediately should ramp up to the "insane" setting.

The game is easy because the Martians shoot weak weapons and, worse, they just stand around waiting for you to walk up and crush them -- or you just walk past them. These are the dumbest Martians ever.

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Doug Elfman is an award-winning entertainment columnist who lives in Las Vegas. He blogs at www.lvrj.com/columnists/Doug_Elfman.html.